CLUE+ Call for Funding Proposals

Funding opportunities/types of funding activities

• Upcoming CLUE+ calls

  Funding type	Opening call	Deadline call	Date communication winning proposals
  CLUE+ Grant writing call	February 2024	10 April 2024	Third week of April 2024
  CLUE+ call 24 no. 2	March 2024	24 April 2024	April 2024
  CLUE+ call 25 no. 1	November 2024	3 December 2024	December 2024
  CLUE+ Grant writing call	February 2025	April 2025	Third week of April 2025
  CLUE+ call 25 no. 2	March 2025	April 2025	Third week of April 2025

  *For more information on the CLUE+ Grant writing call, click HERE.

  Unspecified dates above are estimates. Final dates will be added as soon as possible. The opening of CLUE+ calls are communicated via the CLUE+ activity calendar and website.

• Funding opportunities/types of funding activities

  Within the CLUE+ call, diverse types of funding activities are available. For the following activities funding can be applied, depending on the specific call. Please check the specific call for the actual funding activities. The funding activities are subject to change.

  Ad 1. Academic/scientific meetings (or parts of/sessions in) like organising conferences, workshops, lectures (series), colloquiums, book presentations, webinars etc. You can apply for funding up to €3.000.

  Ad 2. Assistance to support research activities. This CLUE+ grant of max. € 3.000,- will allow you to hire an assistant to help you with your research activities. The expected outcome is a published paper and/or research proposal. The application needs to be supplemented with a budget. Details on salary scales are available through your department’s business or project controller.

  Ad 3. Valorisation activities. CLUE+ offers funding of a max. €2.000,- for:

  • valorisation activities you plan to organize in 2023, e.g. public outreach activities, exhibitions, (stimulating the use of) research products for societal target groups;
  • establishment or maintenance of consortiums, networks, and public and private partnerships. This grant allows you to build or strengthen networks with external partners (whether academic or societal), through expert meetings, assistance in coordination, collaborations with societal partners, memorandums of understanding or the like.;
  • policy development and consultancy initiatives. In order to stimulate the implementation of knowledge outside academia, CLUE+ supports researchers who have concrete plans to engage in policy advice, consultancy activities and the like. Governments, NGOs, knowledge institutes and commercial partners can be commissioners of such projects. Proof of a concrete, paid assignment from a third, commissioning party is required (of a minimum of €2.000).

  Please note that you may only be head applicant of one application for a call for funding.

• Funding amount overview

  Funding type	Max. funding amount	Remarks
  Ad 1. Academic/scientific meetings	€ 3.000,-	Costs for conference/symposium etc. lunches and dinners are not eligible; When organizing part(s) of/ session(s) in academic/ scientific meetings the costs of the hotel/travel/conference fees etc. of the (main) applicant(s) are not eligible. Only the fee of speakers who are not employed/ affiliated at an academic institution are granted. Matching is a plus.
  Ad 2. Assistance to support research activities	€ 3.000,-	The amount includes super gross salary and KDM costs.
  Ad 6. Valorisation activities	€ 2.000,-

• Assessment criteria CLUE+ calls

  Cooperating researchers

  Involvement of researchers from at least two CLUE+ affiliated research clusters or departments and of at least one CLUE+ member.

  Interdisciplinarity

  Applications must refer to activities (e.g. research, valorisation) with an interdisciplinary character.

  Links to CLUE+ programmes and VU profile theme Connected World

  Applications must be explicitly related to one of the CLUE+ research programmes and/or the VU profile theme Connected World. For more information regarding the CLUE+ programmes please visit our website.

  For more information about the VU profile theme Connected World please visit the website.

  Quality, innovativeness and impact of the proposal

  Applications will be assessed on the basis of the following three criteria: quality, innovative nature, and scientific impact.

  Diversity

  Society, and with it our university community, is embraces diversity in many ways (gender, sexual orientation, nationality, culture, ways of thinking and religion). CLUE+ is committed to equal representation of this diversity  and recommends its researchers to do the same when organizing events and activities. For more information about diversity at VU, please visit the website.

  Sustainability

  CLUE+ wants to contribute to a sustainable world. If an application involves international travel, we therefore ask applicants to reflect on the following questions:

  (1) Is international travel necessary or are there online alternatives?
  (2) How can the negative environmental impact of travel be minimised?

  CLUE+ will only approve travel expenses under the following conditions:

  • Travel is for the purpose of an international meeting lasting more than three hours.
  • Public transportation is used if the travel time by public transportation is six hours or less, or if the travel time by public transportation is shorter than or equal to the travel time by plane.
  • A motivation is given for why physical presence at an event is required and/or whether the researcher for whom funds are requested will combine the trip with other work activities.
  • If travel time to an event or activity by public transportation does not exceed eight hours, public transportation should be used.
  • If travel time to an event or activity by public transportation is no more than two hours longer than travel time by plane, public transportation should be used.

  Matching

  Matching of third parties is considered a plus.

  Connected World

  An explicit link with the Profile Theme Connected World is considered a plus.

• Application guidelines

  For all types of funding activities the following documents have to be submitted:

  • Cover letter (max. 2 page A4).
  • Detailed budget estimate. (For the budget guidelines please see below).
  • Abstract and image of the foreseen activity for publication on the CLUE+ website (max 100 words, including names of researchers. The image needs to be free of rights and at least 1200 pixels width).
  • The financial administration of the funding is the responsibility of the applicant(s). Therefore a WBS element on which the funding can be booked is mandatory when applying for funding. If you have no WBS element you can contact the business controller of your faculty, the head of your department or the head or chair group to make arrangements to use an existing WBS element. Without a WBS element or a remark that the WBS element will be arranged the application can’t be reviewed.
  • The application has to engage at least one member of CLUE+ and at least two CLUE+ research programmes, faculties or departments.

  Additional documents per funding activity

  Ad 2. Assistance to support research activities

  • A draft proposal of max. 3 pages in which you motivate how and why you need a research assistant;
  • The name of the potential research assistant (if possible);
  • The expected outcomes.

  Ad 3. Valorization activities

  • Specification of the kind of network envisaged, the proposed partners and the means through which the network will be established or strengthened.
  • Expected outcome.

  The above additional documents can be combined with your cover letter and other mandatory documents.

  All applications should be addressed to the CLUE+ policy officer, attn. Paola Edixhoven and sent to clue@vu.nl. The required document will have to be sent in one pdf. As soon as all documents have been received, the applicant will be sent an acknowledgement of receipt.

• Budget overview guidelines

  The budget overview must be submitted in a table format and the following information has to be mentioned.

  • All costs made for the activity.
  • All expected incomes generated by the activity (like conference fees etc.).
  • The total amount of requested funding.
  • The total amount of co-funding by third parties.
  • If your budget contains wages paid for employment , the amount requested must include the salary as super gross amounts (super bruto ), including the KDM costs for the specific employee. Please contact the business controller and/or the HR advisor of your own faculty/department for these costs. Employment and the cost allocation must be done by the Department Head or the involved Chair.

  Non eligible costs

  The following costs are not eligible:

  • Incidental costs: CLUE+ does not cover costs stated as ‘incidental’, ‘unforeseen’ or ‘contingency'.
  • Speaker fees: only speakers who aren’t employed by an academic organisation are eligible for speaker fees.
  • Editorial/translation costs: costs for the editing or translating a manuscript or paper.
  • Open Access: costs for publishing in Open Access.

  All costs have to be made within the year the application has been granted.

• Employment student assistants/research assistants/replacement

  When you apply for funding for the employment of a student/research assistant or the replacement of your educational tasks, please keep the following in mind:

  1. The employment and the cost allocation must be done by the Department Head or the involved Chair;
  2. The salary has to be on super gross level (super bruto niveau) and includes the KDM costs for the specific person. For more information regarding these costs please contact the financial controller and/or HR advisor of your own faculty/ department.
  3. When you apply for funding for replacement for your educational tasks during the time that you are preparing a grant application, a letter of consent is required from your Department Head regarding the time/fte you want to be replaced.
  4. Please contact the financial controller and/or HR advisor on time, so you have the costs mentioned ad bullet 2. in time.

• Final (financial) report

  The applicant is required to send a final report and overview of the costs incurred within six weeks after the activity has ended.

  Guidelines final report:

  The final report should be in English and must consist of a blog-like abstract of 200 words summarizing what you have done with the funding. The report will be used for our website and newsletter. The final report can be sent to the CLUE+ policy officer, Rita van der Schriek-Hermans via e-mail: clue@vu.nl.